we'll saw to a state legislator who fought for the firing squad to be reintroduced to his state. thanks for joining us on this edition of "inside story." watch us next time. in washington, i'm ray suarez. >> on "america tonight": >> the history books remember rosa parks single act was that she didn't give up the bus seat because she was tired. >> she was never tired. >> i think they will be surprised. >> i think they will be. >> gretchen and her husband own theo's downtown diner.

there was a problem, with her new electric supplier. within months she was paying promised. >> do you think this company was -- >> ripping me off? yeah. >> thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen. for most of us electricity is just a basic necessity look food and water something we often take for granted. we hardly pay attention unless the lights don't come on or the bills are suddenly sky-high. but that is actually happening in more states over a dozen already where deregulation now mean a lot of companies want to be your power provider . adam may provides the story. >> they told me it was going to be a specific rate, a set rate a two year contract. >> gretchen and her husband other than theo's downtown

diner. she quickly knew there was a problem with her electric supplier. >> it ented up end it up being not a fixed rate. not a rate they had propositioned not a 36 month rate. >> it wasn't what you were promised. >> the very first rate was 8.133. >> within months she said she was paying more than five times rate she had been promised costing her thousands of dollars almost bankrupting her business. >> do you think this company was, like -- >> ripping me off? yeah. a lot. >> horror stories like these are quickly mounting. as a growing number of private companies jockey to sell you kilowatts. >> they just came knocking on my door and started offering this wonderful rate. >> the wonderful rate for electricity didn't last wrong for

salome a nurse in connecticut. >> my bills went from on average 300 to $350 a month to all of a sudden, 600, $700. >> for this town house? >> for this town house. i was shocked. >> connecticut was among the first states to give the green light to deregulated power in 2000. allowing third party electric providers to market to consumers. in connecticut, these companies don't generate power. don't control the power lines. they don't even read the meters. that's still up to the state's two regulated utilities. what these third party providers do is buy energy wholesale, then try to sign up retail customers with offers like these. >> call now and earning money back with 3% back plan.

>> states passed laws deregulating their electricity markets. 15 states including texas and most of the northeast. >> it's as if the electric utility is owning the roads and charging you tolls but you can choose which cars to drive on. >> ellen katz heads the office of consumer council in connecticut which has fielded hundreds of complaints about electricity suppliers. >> the marketers who go door to door during the day or get on the phone during the day there's reports of them saying things like, "well i'm from the electric company, and you need to make a choice," or "the governor wants you to switch." just outrageous claims. part of what we're doing is trying to crack down on the marketing statements, where they know who they're talking to.

>> satsumia, her electric bill amounted to half of her month's wages. >> they said if i didn't pay off my bill it was as simple as that, they were going to shut my power down and there was nothing that i could do. >> does it make you mad? >> it makes me furious. that's called a legal robbery, that's what happens to me. >> what happened to her is common, according to katz. the consumer is lured by a low teaser rate. >> you sign up for one rate and all of a sudden you look at your bill and the rate has gone doubled or up 50%. >> one problem with a variable rate katz says you don't know the cost of electricity until you have already bought it. >> so it's like you go to the gas station, you fill up your car and you drive up and use the gas and you get a bill that says here is how much you were using

per gallon. >> craig represents third party providers and says deregulation brings on competition an lower prices. >> the state of texas is bragging today that their prices are significantly lower than they could ever have been under a regulatory regime. >> goodman tesla us texas is the model and points us to the report from the texas utility commission showing prices lower now than in 2001 when electricity was regulated. but deregulated electricity has sparked allegation of deceptive marketing and fraudulent practices in at least six states. in connecticut, energy plus had agreed to pay a $4.5 million fine. misleading customers. >> good. if they did, they should have. we have been way out in front on

consumer prices. >> new jersey you have the attorney general has actually filed lawsuits against three companies. who's watching these companies to make sure they're behaving properly? >> apparently all of those people are. everybody is watching them. >> reporter: electricity suppliers have also caught the attention of the attorney general in illinois. he has filed lawsuits accusing price manipulation and 4.3 billion dollars in excess cost. in west virginia, the attorney general sought to revoke the licenses of suppliers last year after are 3,000 complaints. >> are there some bad operators in your industry? >> there are bad operators in every industry. >> reporter: what do we do to keep them out of it? >> i'm work on it every day. bad ethics in the industry stink. the consumer doesn't like them i

don't like them, they lose investors money and it's all private money. it's not utility money. it's privately money. so there's no gain here in playing the game wrongly. let me take you back to the winter when prices went skyrocketing. people got hurt. my members got hurt. they got caught in this very strange market. >> a lot of people blamed -- >> us. >> you guys. >> but the reality is we're price takers in this market. we're not price makers. price is formed at the wholesale level. >> but connecticut attorney robert izzard has filed class action lawsuits against electric suppliers, claiming that what they charged last year was not based on wholesale prices. >> these contracts are supposed to be tied to wholesale price of power. when the wholesale price of power goes down the rates stay high.

all we are asking is for them to live up to the bargain they made. had they said we'll charge whatever we want, we'll gouge you, we wouldn't be here. but they didn't say that. they said the price of power charged to consumers will be based on market conditions. and market conditions is the wholesale price of power. >> sutsumia has now changed back to the whoalts price of wholesale price of power. >> i don't care how wonderful they make it sound or how attractive the offer is. the bottom line is they are counting on you not following up and not monitoring your bills. so that you fall through the cracks. and you end up paying double and triple for the same services. >> reporter: services everyone

needs with prices all over the board. >> "america tonight's" adam may is with us. adam, that spokesman for the deregulating industry he says that people in texas are happy with this but are customers really saving money? >> well, the industry could go ahead and do a comprehensive national analysis of this but so far they've chosen not to do that. there was a very interesting report that just came out in connecticut a couple of weeks ago that looked at power usage of people that were with connecticut light and power and made a switch to a third party for one single month. they found that nine out of ten consumers were paying more for their electricity because of a third party provider and in total those customers in one single month joie paid more than $10 million extra. >> wow, it's easy to get caught up. we've gotten advertisements and been tempted to do that. i ask imagine someone as savvy

as you are adam could be caught up. >> reporter: savvy maybe that's pushing it joie i vaguely recall i got one of the fliers and made a switch to a third party provider. after the story was completed i got out from work and went out to walk the dog, saw my power bill this the mail. i found out i was paying 11 cents a kilowatt-hour for these third party providers, my going rate was 8.5 cents. i calculated it and i had overpaid hundreds of dollars. i was one of those people you go home you pay your power bill and you move on. you don't actually look at the numbers. that is what is happening in so many cases, customers are not paying attention to the details, they are paying the bill not realizing they could get a lower rate but you got stay on top of

the ball. >> good reminder, from "america tonight's" adam may. next, the investigators caught in the dark web. the latest twist in the effort to call a halt to illicit trade on the dark road. rosa parks, the act of defiance and the life behind it. >> it was not a one act pay. >> it wasn't just the bus? >> it wasn't just the bus. there is so much more. >> and hot on "america tonight" now, we follow despair of sexual assault victims at one of america's most powerful evening powerful evangelical institutions. bob jones university. ahead on "america tonight".

>> our fast forward segment shines light on the dark net. it is a largely hidden part of the web, where sellers hawk illicit goods, anything from drugs to your financial information and buyers pay in bitcoins, a digital currency that is hard to choice. as lori jane gliha found that is heart for the dark thet to disappear. >> reporter: the finishes time

to log on to the dark net to pie drugs how nervous were you? this girl was only 15 when she bought drugs off the dark net. she asked us not to use her name. >> what was the most surprising of the dark net did you find? >> you could order from anywhere in the world and they would show up on your doorstep. >> the illegal drug trade is thriving. here she ordered everything from acid to mdna and cocaine. she made most of her purchases called silk road, known as the ebay of drug sales. >> as soon as you log on you see images of all kinds of drugs. just right as your fingertips. >> in

2013, the fbi seized the dark web and arrested its kerry, ross al brecht. hoping to deter online users officials from 17 countries helped arrest 17 people. they seized several dark net parks that had gained popularity after silk road's road's downturn. dan palumbo a dark net researchers at designate alliance maintains this scrunltd is the scrutinyis necessary. >> they do come back, after taking an initial hit.

you'll see successes and these giet are very resilient with websites different iterations. >> fast-forward to a surprising twist in the take down of silk road. two agents are now accused of profiting themselves. one allegedly diverted more than $800,000 of bitcoin into his own account. law enforcement in another community crisis. >> we have standing orders to do so, our policy is, we are authorized to go ahead and administer it. seconds count we got to get it as soon as we can. >> america's heroin epidemic and the anecdote. lori jane gliha and the device many

emergency medical personnel are carrying. the words her mighty voice speaks to us across the ages. >> a global climate crisis >> two feet of sea level rise is projected... >> threatening america's coastline >> you'll see water in the streets without rain... >> now fighting back with a revolutionary new technology >> there de-watering the ground... >> this is the first time anybodies done this before >> techknow's team of experts show you how the miracles of science... >> this is my selfie, what can you tell me about my future? >> can affect and surprise us. >> don't try this at home. >> "techknow" where technology meets humanity. only on al jazeera america.

>> this year we're marking some historic various in the civil rights laws. it is 50 years from selma and the civil rights act.

but before taking steps across the edmund peddus bridge, behind the small figure of rosa parks there was a very big voice. >> what do colored people now hope to gain by pressing the segregation issue at this time what do you hope to achieve? >> we hope to achieve equal rights. >> a simple hope but from her earliest days, rosa parks knew the struggle for justice was far more complex. the history books remember rosa parks as a soft spoken seam stress. to give up her bus seat because she was just tao too tired to move. but a friend who was beside

ms. parks side for years, sed that just wasn't so. >> she was never too tired. that was the myth that people had told for years, that she was tired. >> i think they will be surprised? >> i think they will be. i think they will be. >> a decade after parks death, as a treasuretrophy treasure trove is made public. >> deep at the library of congress curators pour intermediate tern,000 items crammed into 80 boxes that make up the parks collection. >> each box that we opened had a different kind of surprise in pit. >> the gift rosa parks left for all of us is a look at the most intimate parts of her life, from her grandfather work at home from the montgomery bus boycott

and the decades of cavism that followed. >> she knew who she was and she wanted to share that with the world. >> still her writings in precise penmanship, express doubts about how much of her private thoughts she should reveal. >> 8th ran cannon cure adrian cannon cure eighthed her effects. >> would they be interested or indifferent? will the results be harmful or good? >> whatever her misgivings parks collected all the details of her life. she documents the everyday hurts of a black woman in the jim crow south. from her first look at the morning paper. >> black star edition, which was the edition that mainstream newspapers made for the black community. >> colored news separate. reason: white readers would

resent reading the title ms. or mrs. preceding colored women's names. >> segregated dining rooms and the seats at the back of the buses. the bus arrived in parks lifelong after she became an activist. she was born into the sense of activism of stepping up to what was right. >> she was born into -- she was born into a tradition of rebellion. >> in her notes parks recalls desperate hours as a child waiting for her grandfather for the klan to arrive at their door. >> i stayed awake nights keeping vigil with grandpa. i wanted to see him kill a klan

member. >> later her marriage to raymond parks inspired her acts of social justice. >> he is one of the people she identifies in her life as a role model. >> at first she didn't like that raymond parks was so light skinned but over time, love grew between them. >> parks led the local naacp. on a few yellow sheets rosa parks explains what she was really thinking when the bus driver told her to move. >> i had been pushed around all my life and felt at this moment i couldn't take it anymore. there's just so much hurt disappointment and oppression one can take. the bubble of life grows larger. the line between reason and madness gross thin per.

>> though her husband clearly supported her protest, he writes of his distress. >> we don't know why she writes it but she writes about his anger. >> he was a madman furious angry with himself for being a financial failure. mad at the bus driver, mad at me for refusing to give up my seat. >> as a result of the bus boycott, the parks moved north. ing throughout the following years, she kept much of her collection intact, intended to be in the rosa parks institute for young people, the one she and steel had creacted in created in detroit. >> and respect it.

>> and help another generation learn. >> absolutely. her focus was on the youth. she felt if the youth knew, if the youth understood the youth would carry forth. >> thanks to an exhibit at the library of congress, rosa parks is finally able to speak to a new generation. >> she was not just a one act play. it was not just one protest on december 21st, 1955. >> it wasn't just the bus. >> it wasn't just the bus. she was a quiet seam stress that wrote at full volume . >> with a voice that rings across the ages. the rosa parks collection we know came to the library of congress after some legal wrangling among her friends and heirs, it took an unlikely foundation, the howard buffett,

led by warren buffett, turned the entire collection over to the library of congress. buffett did it because it was what his late mother would have wanted. that's it for tonight's program. tell us what you think on aljazeera.com/americatonight. we'll have more on "america tonight", tomorrow. >> al jazeera america brings you a first hand look at the environmental issues, and new understanding of our changing world. >> it's the very beginning >> this was a storm of the decade

>>...hurricane... >> we can save species... >> our special month long focus, fragile planet you are watching al jazerra live from our headquarters in doha. here is what's coming up. gunmen attack a university in northeastern kenya killing at least two people and injuring dozens of others. also ahead on the program. saudi-led air strikes forced heidi rebels to bull from the yemeni city of aden. isil fighters are pushed back from the refugees camp near the syrian capital. and learning to speak in their native tongue, how schools in bolivia are pushing indigenous